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Herman Melville was an American novelist, essayist, short story writer and poet. His most notable work, Moby Dick, is regarded as a masterpiece of American literature.

Antonio Manzini is an actor, screenwriter, director, and the author of two murder mysteries featuring Deputy Police Chief Rocco Schiavone, Black Run is the first of these novels to be translated into English. He lives in Italy.

Jack Meggitt-Phillips is an incredibly exciting new talent. He is an author, scriptwriter and playwright whose work has been performed at The Roundhouse and featured on Radio 4. He is scriptwriter and presenter of The History of Advertising podcast. In his mind, Jack is an enormously talented ballroom dancer, however his enthusiasm far surpasses his actual talent. Jack lives in north London where he spends most of his time drinking peculiar teas and reading PG Wodehouse novels.

Simon Morrison is a professor of music at Princeton University, a contributor to the New York Times and the New York Review of Books, and the author of, most recently, The Love and Wars of Lina Prokofiev. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey.

Sunday Times bestselling author Mhairi McFarlane was born in Scotland in 1976 and her unnecessarily confusing name is pronounced Vah-Ree. After some efforts at journalism, she started writing fiction and her debut, You Had Me at Hello, was an instant success. She’s since sold over 4.5 million copies of her books worldwide. She lives in Nottingham with a man and, sadly for the time being, no cat.

George R.R. Martin is the author of fifteen novels and novellas, including five volumes of A Song of Ice and Fire, several collections of short stories, as well as screenplays for television and feature films. Dubbed ‘the American Tolkien’, George R.R. Martin has won numerous awards including the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award. He is an Executive Producer on HBO’s Emmy Award-winning Game of Thrones, which is based on his A Song of Ice and Fire series. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Born in 1913, Elyne Mitchell began writing for her children. Although ‘The Silver Brumby’ books are her most famous, she wrote several others, mainly about horses. Passionate about the dramatic landscapes of the Australian Alps, her books convey the beauty and savagery of that area with a remarkable lyricism.

Elyne Mitchell died in March 2002.